You are wrong; Inferno’s an NYC problem. As you know, the X-Men are perfectly content to let their demonic cairns persist unmolested. Those are responsible for more single- than multiple-issue bullshit so, really, they don’t even rank as a problem.

The story behind Inferno, which may or may not have been an attempt to work the late '80s/early '90s fan press, was that Chris Claremont wanted to tell such a long, complicated, obnoxiously exploitative crossover story that nobody would ever want the X-Men books to cross over again. Of course it had the exact opposite effect.

The same strategy *did* eventually work for the larger Marvel line with Operation Galactic Storm.

If you just want to read them, the vast majority (all, I think) of these issues are on Marvel Unlimited. I’ve never liked reading comics more than on a tablet; you might find the experience less than ideal on a phone or computer. (or maybe not!) missed your disclaimer about no digital copies

My current theory about Inferno is that, because it intersects all the ways in which Claremont's stories were changed against his wishes, it was some kind of dominance play on the part of Marvel. Remind him who's boss, you know? Rub his nose in it.

On the other hand, lots of options for Excalibur, which I've also wanted to check out thanks to this thread so... any particular recommendations there?

The Epic Collection there is a newly collected book from earlier this year, so it should be available at reasonable prices. It contains much of the early material of the original Claremont/Alan Davis run, which are the names you should look for with Excalibur anyway, so it's recommended. Later on after Claremont's departure from the book, Davis returns to it to write and illustrate a lengthy run on his own, for what is likely the best era for the book.

Skipping ahead to Kings of Pain bc it’s on Unlimited and I came across this bit, which I’m sure has made the rounds before.
This has been my first real exposure to Fabian Nicieza’s writing. I think I’m going to take a break after Claremont leaves the books, but I’m enjoying this stupid-ass crossover. Every issue begins with a stupid hero fight which people comment on, in a time when that was more novel and defensible. (maybe?)
I don’t think this is horny; just fucked up

Hard to say.
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How do you pronounce “teke”? It’s a word I truly hate, because my mind wants to read it in a way that has to be wrong. (tech-uh? tech-ay?) If it’s “tee kay” fuck that, why not use T.K.? Also fuck that word no matter what.

How do you pronounce “teke”? It’s a word I truly hate, because my mind wants to read it in a way that has to be wrong. (tech-uh? tech-ay?) If it’s “tee kay” fuck that, why not use T.K.? Also fuck that word no matter what.

My current theory about Inferno is that, because it intersects all the ways in which Claremont's stories were changed against his wishes, it was some kind of dominance play on the part of Marvel. Remind him who's boss, you know? Rub his nose in it.

From what I've seen in this thread, I'm not sure he'd be entirely opposed to that.

Here's some fun dumb stuff from early X-Men (#22-23), behind a spoilerpop because it's image heavy.

Isn't this supposed to be pretty much the one and only situation where Angel is kind of useful?

Literally every Cyclops panel is like this.

They barely made it past 20 issues before they just couldn't be bothered to write a superhero in a wheelchair anymore. (I'm sure they forget that this ever happened soon enough. Early X-Men was very bad, honestly amazing that it ever had a succesful revival.)

Was "Bye, I've got to leave now to do a bunch of tranquilizers" a normal thing in the 1960s?

Gag where Beast accidentally asks a man out on a date. These crazy beatniks and their newfangled hairstyles!

My favorite early Beast trick was him standing sideways on brick walls, thanks to his incredible toe/core strength. I really think he should do it more often and it’s not like it contradicts his power level like some other x-feats. (Cyclops cuts a cake with his beams early on)

My fav Silver Age X-Man was Mimic, because he was a total dick to these nerds.

Like the first three panels below, there is actually some pretty fun 60s comic pop art in the 2nd issue of this, after El Tigre finds the MacGuffins and transforms into a very colorful Mayan deity. (But a lot of the issue is wasted on a low stakes boat trek through the jungle.)

The Mimic Joins the X-Men three issue story (Puppet Master-->Banshee's first appearance-->Super Adaptoid) was a big improvement over the 5 issue D-List parade of Count Nefaria-->Locust-->El Tigre. Unfortunately, a big improvement over delightfully bad brings the quality level up bland and forgettable , the exact sweet spot where almost no enjoyment can be found.

However:

Quote:

Originally Posted by NavelsAreNeat

My fav Silver Age X-Man was Mimic, because he was a total dick to these nerds.

This was a a lot of fun. The original 5 are just terrible almost all of the time, and I was totally on board with the Mimic bossing them around. I wish he could stick around just to keep bullying them. The best part was that Xavier repaced Cyclops with Mimic as the leader for these three issues, like even he would rather have this obnoxious jerk in charge than any of his terrible students. Cal Rankin should have stayed around as a powerless leader like Storm did later, as the only character in this run with a personality.